Gifts from the sea
SUN PHOTO BY GREG MARTIN
Dalton Smith, from left, Sheldon Flowers, Mike Wilhite and Morgan Wilson are all grins after unloading their haul of mullet Friday at Riviera Marina in Punta Gorda.
SUN PHOTO BY GREG MARTIN
Shrimper Paul DeFeo sits in the wheelhouse of his boat, the Miss Barbara Jean. A Punta Gorda resident since 1970, DeFeo has been selling shrimp and other local seafood off his boat at the Riviera Marina for the past 18 years.
PUNTA GORDA — Like millions of pregnant mothers who suddenly have to go into action all at the same time, Charlotte Harbor’s colossal schools of roe-laden mullet began bolting from their backwater lairs to make their annual spawning runs for the Gulf this week.
And that sent several dozen local fishermen and seafood wholesalers, who were operating out of the Riviera Marina in Punta Gorda, into an around-the-clock frenzy of toil and joy.
